With S3, The Walking Dead is a “different show”—the most interesting one yet

Ars looks back at a tumultuous season and grabs 10 minutes with Robert Kirkman.

Warning: This post—and likely its comment thread—contain speculation and potential spoilers.The Walking Dead is many things to many different people—compelling, gory, frustrating, mind-numbing, pioneering for its genre on TV—but it's never dull. Season three comes to an end this Sunday, and there are as many thickening plots off camera as there are on it. Some major TV recappers have sworn off the show completely for its nihilism. And when AMC renewed the series, showrunner Glen Mazzara resigned over a "difference of opinion" about which direction the series should go. This triggered major backlash from the creative community, with Kurt Sutter of Sons of Anarchy saying AMC disrespects writers and Shawn Ryan of The Shield wondering aloud why anyone would sell a good show to the network.

No matter where anyone stands on these issues (or on the show itself, promise we're getting there), The Walking Dead inevitably powers forward like its signature, unrelenting walkers. S3 was the highest rated season to date, besting shows like American Idol and The Big Bang Theory in the 18-49 demographic last fall and scoring the most watched single episode in broadcast this year (the premier of this season's second half). If you want to taunt an NBC programming exec, ask where the zombie series' talk show spin-off Talking Dead would rank among their network's offerings. Not bad for a comic-adaptation, right?

On with the show...

Now, is all the attention paid to the show merited by what happens in it? While opinions can certainly change if this weekend's episode, "Welcome to the Tombs," is a clunker, S3 as a whole is The Walking Dead's most interesting to date.

On a show where everything that happens is contained within an endlessly watchable framework—this zombie apocalypse isn't ending in S4—characterization is sparse and simply not the priority. The Walking Dead is about propulsion towards the next event. Our heroes are merely the lens through which we see reactions to these situations. When we started the year, Rick and company had just left the friendly confines of the Greene family farm. This week, there's an expected war between armed and organized living factions. We definitely ain't working on Maggie's farm no more.

Through it all, Hershel lost a leg, Carl lost his mom, Daryl lost a brother, and Rick lost his damn mind. It's been nice to see the wear and tear of this living nightmare explicitly surface. On the positive end, the Grimes group can now wield weapons efficiently enough to clear an entire prison or ambush a militaristic, constantly surveyed commune. On the downside, we slowly watched someone we know go crazy (even if the idea probably works better without ghost wife hallucinations) and had that impact reinforced by Morgan, a forgotten friend who met the same fate. "Clear," the hour of Morgan's re-emergence, was certainly a season highlight. We saw an unexpected fan favorite, heard Michonne talk, had a welcomed break from the will-they-or-won't-they games of Woodbury, and took a trip down memory lane with the Grimes family. But the real brilliance of that episode was how it only strengthened the journey continuing to unfold within Rick.

"When Morgan returned in the show, he’s a very different Morgan than when we last saw him. This character is back, but he’s kind of a completely different person," The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman told Ars. "If we saw Rick in S1 and then didn’t see him until S3, we’d be like ‘Wait a minute, who’s this guy? He’s completely different.' But you don’t really notice it as you watch from season to season. So to be able to do things with characters like Morgan, it draws attention to the fact that these characters are growing, changing, and evolving in really big drastic ways over the course of the show."

Kirkman, of course, is the creator of The Walking Dead comics and a driving force behind this apocalyptic world coming to television, gaming systems, and most recently the Web. Kirkman-fandom is a longstanding Ars tradition and he was kind enough to chat for 10 minutes the week after Rick and The Governor finally sat down face-to-face.

Rick's new foil, that humble Governor named Phillip who we met in episode three, experienced this apocalypse evolution on speed. After suffering one loss of his own (RIP zombie daughter) he turned into a one-note dose of revenge-seeking evil. It makes you wonder if starting him off as a dictator-like ruler would've made more sense, but his initially democratic demeanor did one great thing for the show: it introduced his (theoretical) right-hand man, Milton.

As cliché as it is to have your brains guy named "Milton," he slowly became one of the season's more complex characters. First Milton was a yes-man lackey, soon after, a partial rebel who helped Andrea escape before ultimately snitching. Now, as The Governor has become more and more power-hungry, Milton's allegiances have shifted to peaceful living. Getting to know Andrea, spending an afternoon with Hershel, and catching a quick glimpse of The Governor's torture chamber even compelled Milton to action in recent episodes. He is an absolute wild card heading into the season finale (though, avoid this Rolling Stone interview with Mazzara if you don't want our guess). Plus, Milton reintroduced the idea of humanity searching for reason within the outbreak. The Tibetan singing bowl chronicles were as memorable as the CDC encounter, even if the "research" would please Ars science editor John Timmer less.

"When you’re living on a farm, you’re under constant threat, and there’s a huge argument with this other group trying to move into your farm—I don’t think anyone’s going to be sitting around going 'let’s do some science work and figure things out,'" Kirkman said. "But once you get into environments like the CDC, kind of a no brainer, or Woodbury, which is safe and quiet to a certain extent, you would be able to have a lab and start to discover things. It’s the nature of man to want to find answers and that's something people would definitely focus on. We’re trying to portray it as realistically as possible through Milton."

Now, the show still isn't been perfect. T-Dog spent 23 episodes with viewers but his death is probably the most memorable thing about him. Andrea's waffling has earned her "new Lori" status for many fans. And Oscar and Axel (remember them?!) confirmed The Walking Dead's variation on a red shirt: if you're not one of the 10 main characters and you begin talking about yourself, prepare to eat brains.

But S3 earned The Walking Dead a S4. If these 16 episodes erred, they did so in the opposite way of S2—with too much action instead of too little. New showrunner Scott Gimple had the writing credits on a few promising hours (the return of Morgan, the end of Merle) so the show's newfound upward trajectory will hopefully continue. Kirkman, of course, is a bit biased, but he certainly sees it this way. There is an exciting S4 to speculate about after the series gives us one final hour.

"It’s hard to look ahead without spoiling the finale, but I will say it’s kind of a new beginning for Rick and his group coming out of this season," Kirkman said. "I think S3 has ended up being a big lesson on the part of Rick. It’s about him really learning how to live in this world and evolving to the point where he can do so effectively. We’re going to come into S4 with a much different Rick and we’re going to see how that affects everyone in the group in very serious ways. Every season has been a little bit different, and S4 is going to be vastly different...

...But it’ll still have all the zombie smashing that everyone wants."

Bonus: Kirkman odds and ends

Kirkman is keeping busy even as this season comes to a close. As stated above, he recently launched thewalkingdead.com. As of late 2012, he was also overseeing a pilot script for Thief of Thieves in the hopes that AMC would pick it up. On top of all that, Telltale is cranking out another edition of the award-winning game. It has to be difficult juggling all of it and keeping narratives consistent across medium, right?

"That’s why I don’t do it alone," Kirkman said. "I know comic books so I do the comic book stuff, I kind of know what I’m doing there. But when it comes to TV there’s a huge team of hundreds of people working on that show, all know TV better than me. When it comes to the video game, there’s a huge team of hundreds of people who all know video games better than me. I’ve been lucky enough to pick the right partners and collaborators and am able to work with the best of the best when it comes to bringing The Walking Dead into a new medium."

But does he want to get more hands-on with any of it? "I can’t help but learn things about it when working on it," he noted. "I watched the video game come together and helped that process come along to a certain respect despite my complete lack of knowledge about how things go in the video game world. It is tempting to dabble in that field a little bit. But TV is really something I’ve gotten a little more well-versed in over the three seasons of The Walking Dead. I’m doing a lot more stuff in TV on my own and I've been working in the writer’s room for two years now, so I feel like I’m getting a little better. It’s definitely something that’s expanding the spectrum of things I think I can do."

Speaking of making TV, one of the nuts and bolts changes for The Walking Dead S3 comes from how we hear it. The show has increasingly used non-diegetic pop music to set the mood (see the existence of an actual soundtrack now or all the musical guests onTalking Dead). It's a big change from what S1 (or horror in general) tended to do, but the shift was intentional.

"It’s still something we try to do sparingly, but it is a different show," Kirkman said. "I’m really happy with the fact S1 was about people trying to survive—the struggle against zombies, killing zombies in the woods, killing zombies in Atlanta. It was like 'Oh wow, zombies are around every corner. And it’s scary but they’re killing them.' That’s kind of fallen by the way side and the show has gotten bigger and different. And as the show has evolved, I think the way we tell stories has evolved and that couldn’t be more clear than in the way the music has evolved over the show."

For more on what Kirkman has going on with The Walking Dead, well, that's why he went ahead and created a site this spring. No more bouncing between AMC, Image, Wikipedia, or Twitter; or that's the hope. At the very least, there's now one place you're sure to find Kirkman from time to time.

"You had to kind of scour the net to have all the info. TheWalkingDead.com was an effort to bring it all together so that somebody could go to one place to find out all things Walking Dead," he noted, adding that with this new project he's been known to check the forums after episodes, even interact with fans. "So when people say mean things I’m looking at it. I’m crying. It’s OK, it happens."

100 Reader Comments

This is probably the worst season of any TV show I've ever seen. You've heard the joke of The Lord of the Rings being a story about people walking. Well, this is a season of people talking. It's not that I'm 15 and I only care about killing zombies, but this has been BORING, and worst of all, NONSENSE. So many things so close to happen and nothing has happened.

Vik, perhaps you have seen to many shows in which there is too much action or not enough plot. To be bluntly honest, I thought that S3 was perhaps the best and most unique that the series has had so far. Yes, they may have turned away some from the zombies, but the human element was missing from the previous seasons and I imo I think that they hit the nail in the head. Don't assume that the series is over cause a couple of major characters were killed off, and there's no reason to watch it because you favorite character died off, or the story line wasn't exactly what you liked, rather this season opens up a doorway to what's really going to happen in S4. If you ask me, this show has only started to see what it's really made of: the human element surviving in impossible conditions and situations. It will be exciting to see what's in store for this show!!..

Eh, it's gotten slow to me. It's all Man v Man. Walking Dead could pretty much just be any post-apocalyptic show, where people are fighting over resources. The zombies are mere background at this point, which is disappointing. What about the herds of undead? Where were they all going? Why were they compelled to move together like that? I'm full up on character development, can we get some new interesting developments going on in the undead side of things?

Rhurazz, the problem is not turning away from zombies, bring the human element, losing a character or anything like that. The problem I see is studity:

The confrontations are getting lamer on each episode. Nobody does anything right anymore. Michonne had the Governor by his knees and, instead of killing him, she just tries to strangle him with the sword. The only reason she did that and not killing him is because the character had to survive the rest of the season. That's stupid to me. Don't create that confrontation or don't get to the point where he's on his knees and she can kill him easily. But don't screw things the way the did.

When they get to the prison Rick is confronted with this guy that throws a couple zombies towards him. What does Rick do? He just kill the guy. That's a confrontation I did like. Not because it was short or it was violent, but because it felt real. "You're trying to kill me and we're on this zombie world... OK, I'm opening your head with this machete and we're done". A lot of people depend on Rick, starting with his wife and kid, and he's not going to hesitate. That tells me what's on Rick's head a thousand times better than 14 hours of nonsense dialogue.

And we can apply that to every time they confront a small group of zombies. Michonne, again, killed two zombies with the sword in the blink of an eye on the last episode, and mostly everyone can achieve that on a safely way, but they confront 14 zombies and it's like "RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!".

I have no problem with people talking. I have problem with enlarging the whole situation because they have 16 episodes to fill.

And we can apply that to every time they confront a small group of zombies. Michonne, again, killed two zombies with the sword in the blink of an eye on the last episode, and mostly everyone can achieve that on a safely way, but they confront 14 zombies and it's like "RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!".

I wasnt exactly expecting Shakespeare from this show and yes there were some off moments but it still does entertain for the most part.Its far, far better than what passes for entertainment like those scripted reality shows.Call me easy to please, just dont think im stupid and yeah, i still like TWD.It aint perfect but comes mighty close at times.

Rhurazz, the problem is not turning away from zombies, bring the human element, losing a character or anything like that. The problem I see is studity:

The confrontations are getting lamer on each episode. Nobody does anything right anymore. Michonne had the Governor by his knees and, instead of killing him, she just tries to strangle him with the sword. The only reason she did that and not killing him is because the character had to survive the rest of the season. That's stupid to me. Don't create that confrontation or don't get to the point where he's on his knees and she can kill him easily. But don't screw things the way the did.

When they get to the prison Rick is confronted with this guy that throws a couple zombies towards him. What does Rick do? He just kill the guy. That's a confrontation I did like. Not because it was short or it was violent, but because it felt real. "You're trying to kill me and we're on this zombie world... OK, I'm opening your head with this machete and we're done". A lot of people depend on Rick, starting with his wife and kid, and he's not going to hesitate. That tells me what's on Rick's head a thousand times better than 14 hours of nonsense dialogue.

And we can apply that to every time they confront a small group of zombies. Michonne, again, killed two zombies with the sword in the blink of an eye on the last episode, and mostly everyone can achieve that on a safely way, but they confront 14 zombies and it's like "RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!".

I have no problem with people talking. I have problem with enlarging the whole situation because they have 16 episodes to fill.

This! I am so annoyed by totally illogical decisions by the characters. The Governor is known to be total asshole still Rick and even Merle think it makes sense to give him Michone because maybe he will let them be. Yeah right... Almost every episode has one these brain fart decisions.

"Never dull" is simply not true. The show can be VERY dull.. every second or third scene the plot gets bogged down with some cliched, predictable conflict and half the actors suck.

S3 might be less boring (and less sexist) than 1&2 but I can't watch an entire episode without having to pull out my phone for this week's 10-minute yawnfest where a man yells at a woman for being a stupid useless woman and she tearfully apologizes for being such a stupid useless woman.

How many Best Buy's are located in post-apocalyptic Georgia? I'm betting there's more than one, so why hasn't anyone thought "lets break into Best Buy and steal some walkie talkies and a bunch of batteries"...

The show might be better than average but that's it.. i cringe when people praise it to the skies because they are plainly oblivious to some of the quality TV shows that have come out in the last few years.

Of course they're oblivious. The good stuff gets canceled before most can be made aware of it's existence.

could you only link to videos that are internationally available, please? by linking to region restricted YouTube videos, you are supporting whatever douchebag uploaded the video now infesting your post. If you can't do so, please at least warn your readers in the title description/headline or at the start of the article (perhaps near the spoiler warning)?

Plot holes and inconsistencies, forced stupidity, filler, cliche dialogue occur in almost every tv show. When the show is good you don't care about all the bad parts. The Walking Dead seem to be in this place where its good enough to make people want to keep watching (some people) but not good enough so such that people don't analyze every single flaw.

Plot holes and inconsistencies, forced stupidity, filler, cliche dialogue occur in almost every tv show. When the show is good you don't care about all the bad parts. The Walking Dead seem to be in this place where its good enough to make people want to keep watching (some people) but not good enough so such that people don't analyze every single flaw.

I think the fact they analyze it anally is a good indicator that they are engaged.

About the "they talk too much" critic: they live in a world where any form of entertainment is dead, they don't even have a ball to play football, can't see movies or go to theater, read comics or books and so on. They can only talk, it's obvious they talk a lot, otherwise it would be action scene after action scene, and that is really boring.

I got annoyed with the second half of season 3, because the story progression has slowed right down. Episodes of late have only been dealing with one thing, and the whole second half has been building up for a showdown, but not much has been happening in between, some episodes just seemed to be full of filler.

I like The Walking Dead as much as the next guy, but what in the world does this have to do with technology? "Geek Toys" and "Web Culture" as categories are awfully flimsy excuses for writing a more broadly-appealing story.

I have no problem with people talking. I have problem with enlarging the whole situation because they have 16 episodes to fill. /

Yup. Would have been great if they had cut it to maybe 10 or 12 episodes instead of 16.

+ The Governor character is a big bag of cliches. Annoys the hell out of me.

Exactly this. Also, I include "Clear" as one of the necessary 10 episodes. It's not the amount of talking that is annoying it's the lack of things that are fascinating happening from season start to season end. Still a good show, just not as good as it could be if it didn't feel like it was sitting still to fill out 16 episodes.

How many Best Buy's are located in post-apocalyptic Georgia? I'm betting there's more than one, so why hasn't anyone thought "lets break into Best Buy and steal some walkie talkies and a bunch of batteries"...

Or a Walmart which has a much higher density of stores around the rural areas.

Plus, if Robert Kirkman is reading this, I wouldn't mind seeing the star characters eventually circle around Atlanta a bit more and see some of the other cities and terrain. Northeast of Atlanta are some interesting landmarks like Currahee Mountain, Toccoa Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Brasstown Bald, or the city of Helen. Stone Mountain, is more inside Atlanta, but would also be a fun place to see an episode take place on.

The CDC episodes in S1 were helpful in establishing believability. It would be nice to follow up with some more science and explain how everyone could be infected but not die. Conversely when bitten people die presumably from the zombie virus, but that doesn't make sense if they were already infected.

I haven't read the comics, but I'd like to learn a little more (perhaps through hearsay) about the post apocalyptic world at large.

I somewhat enjoy The Walking Dead (my wife is a fan, we watch it together). I have three serious reservations about the show.

One, virtually every zombie apocalypse fiction piece shows us survivors who deserve to get eaten alive by zombies, with fewer redeeming characters. The Walking Dead is no different. I find myself rooting for the zombies. Rick, specifically, has been garbage since Shane died. I like how Glen is starting to step up. Something needs to happen to Rick so Glen can take over properly. Rick needs to be a side character in Season 4.

Two, the longer our heroes survive, the less credible the zombies become. We've seen over a hundred ways to kill a "Walker" or a "Biter". And we've only seen walkers and biters. No runners, no spitters, no real dangerous zombies. Kids can and have killed them and it's no longer shocking. The Walking Dead's zombies are not even a real threat. A group like the Governor's could go out and kill massive amounts of them, eventually render them inert. They are not hard to kill, and once killed (again), they do not come back. Not to mention that, as an armchair scientist, I have a serious problem with zombies in the first place. I'm willing to look past how the dead walk and why they need to feed on brains (or at least flesh). I figure that's black magic and I'm willing to write it off. But it has been established that zombies can take real damage. You can break off their jaw and they can never bite again. You can amputate their legs and they will never walk again. They feel no pain. Since they feel no pain, all that walking around with no care for their feet and knees (which are dead and should be rotting away), their bodies would just give out eventually.

Three, that being said, where does this show end? Will all the zombies actually break down and die? Will there be some miracle cure? Or will we find out that only Georgia (and maybe surrounding states) are affected, and the government nukes the area right as Rick and co. get out just in time (or not). Ultimately, zombie apocalypse scenarios are fun because they test our short-term survival skills and instincts, but I don't think there's a legitimate endgame in sight.

How many Best Buy's are located in post-apocalyptic Georgia? I'm betting there's more than one, so why hasn't anyone thought "lets break into Best Buy and steal some walkie talkies and a bunch of batteries"...

Or a Walmart which has a much higher density of stores around the rural areas.

Plus, if Robert Kirkman is reading this, I wouldn't mind seeing the star characters eventually circle around Atlanta a bit more and see some of the other cities and terrain. Northeast of Atlanta are some interesting landmarks like Currahee Mountain, Toccoa Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Brasstown Bald, or the city of Helen. Stone Mountain, is more inside Atlanta, but would also be a fun place to see an episode take place on.

The CDC episodes in S1 were helpful in establishing believability. It would be nice to follow up with some more science and explain how everyone could be infected but not die. Conversely when bitten people die presumably from the zombie virus, but that doesn't make sense if they were already infected.

I haven't read the comics, but I'd like to learn a little more (perhaps through hearsay) about the post apocalyptic world at large.

As I understand it, people die from bites because the bites are hideously toxic and infection takes them, rather than the virus.

Not so sure about that "air bomb", and the doctors explanation was somewhat...lacking.

Agreed that the virus explanation wasn't as detailed as it could have been, but with there is a limit to how realistic it can get and still have walking zombies after six months. Without nutrients distributed via blood, the muscles and nervous system would eventually waste away, and we've seen zombies with body parts missing. Perhaps the virus or bacteria could energize the muscles directly from their own mass, but that would limit them to about a month.

With the "air bomb" perhaps the doctor wasn't an explosives expert and was just repeating something he heard. A thermobaric explosive uses the surrounding air so would sort of be like setting the air on fire.

This is probably the worst season of any TV show I've ever seen. You've heard the joke of The Lord of the Rings being a story about people walking. Well, this is a season of people talking. It's not that I'm 15 and I only care about killing zombies, but this has been BORING, and worst of all, NONSENSE. So many things so close to happen and nothing has happened.

It's funny you say this b/c, prior to THIS season, I would've agreed with your sentiment about the show in general.I remember talking to my gf, and exclaiming "How could they POSSIBLY make a show about a zombie apocalypse boring?" Yeah, they sure as hell did for the first two seasons, IMO. That changed with this season, and I largely agree Nathan's summary. For me this is has been the best season thus far but it was still quite uneven. I REALLY hope Kirkman can start taking over more of the writing duties at some point.

The show is bad. No one wants to say it because we're fans of the IDEA of the show. We want it to be good, we even love some of the characters, (Daryl), and individual episodes and moments, so everyone tries to force a silver lining into this show because we love the idea so much that we want it to keep going in hopes of improvement.

But the truth is that this show is bad. It's budget is apparently shit because every set is tiny, poor, and constantly reused and the action sequences are weak and pathetic. The writing is predictable, poor, and often childish. The story arc is meaningless, and half the episodes are what any other show would call bottle shows or empty filler. You can't have a show that has no good dialouge, no good characters, no good action, and no worthwhile story and still keep calling it a good show just because you like the setting.

The season 3 finale was fucking terrible. I am done with the show, and if Kirkman's influence was what led to that lame anticlimax, I won't waste my time on the comics.

I read all the comics (and I don't read comics at all, not really a fan) through like issue 90, which was before the first season was finished. I have no idea how they've been since. But I have to say that those ones that I read through were very good. And VERY different from the show. Seriously, the show is pretty much just a shadow of the comic now, to where it's really only "The Walking Dead" in name only. I won't go into what is different as I'm sure there's entire websites dedicated to the differences.

Bottom line, my advice is to not give up on the comic just because of it's association with this (now) terrible show.

This is probably the worst season of any TV show I've ever seen. You've heard the joke of The Lord of the Rings being a story about people walking. Well, this is a season of people talking. It's not that I'm 15 and I only care about killing zombies, but this has been BORING, and worst of all, NONSENSE. So many things so close to happen and nothing has happened.

Season 2 should've been named "Little House on the Prairie - Z". A dull, dumb, boring show with stick-figure characters going over the tiredest American media clichés again and again.

I have heard S3 is a lot more interesting. I might give it a try, but if the extra excitement lies in pretendingly penetrating deeper into the abysmal personalities of the characters we know, I will definitely quit.

How many Best Buy's are located in post-apocalyptic Georgia? I'm betting there's more than one, so why hasn't anyone thought "lets break into Best Buy and steal some walkie talkies and a bunch of batteries"...

Best Buy probably sells (sold?) less walkie talkies because people want (wanted? post apocalypse?) smartphones. You're more likely to find them at a sporting goods place like Dick's or a bike shop...

I've seen up to episode 14 of this season so forgive me if I'm not able to cover absolutely everything.

But I have to admit that, in my opinion, this season has been the most boring season yet.

I only played The Walking Dead video game on my Playstation this year and I have to say that the game is more interesting than this entire season.

Should they make a season 4, and if i finish watching season 3, I'll probably only just watch a couple of episodes to decide if i should stop watching. Otherwise, I'll probably stick to just playing the video game instead.

I somewhat enjoy The Walking Dead (my wife is a fan, we watch it together). I have three serious reservations about the show.

One, virtually every zombie apocalypse fiction piece shows us survivors who deserve to get eaten alive by zombies, with fewer redeeming characters. The Walking Dead is no different. I find myself rooting for the zombies. Rick, specifically, has been garbage since Shane died. I like how Glen is starting to step up. Something needs to happen to Rick so Glen can take over properly. Rick needs to be a side character in Season 4.

Two, the longer our heroes survive, the less credible the zombies become. We've seen over a hundred ways to kill a "Walker" or a "Biter". And we've only seen walkers and biters. No runners, no spitters, no real dangerous zombies. Kids can and have killed them and it's no longer shocking. The Walking Dead's zombies are not even a real threat. A group like the Governor's could go out and kill massive amounts of them, eventually render them inert. They are not hard to kill, and once killed (again), they do not come back. Not to mention that, as an armchair scientist, I have a serious problem with zombies in the first place. I'm willing to look past how the dead walk and why they need to feed on brains (or at least flesh). I figure that's black magic and I'm willing to write it off. But it has been established that zombies can take real damage. You can break off their jaw and they can never bite again. You can amputate their legs and they will never walk again. They feel no pain. Since they feel no pain, all that walking around with no care for their feet and knees (which are dead and should be rotting away), their bodies would just give out eventually.

Three, that being said, where does this show end? Will all the zombies actually break down and die? Will there be some miracle cure? Or will we find out that only Georgia (and maybe surrounding states) are affected, and the government nukes the area right as Rick and co. get out just in time (or not). Ultimately, zombie apocalypse scenarios are fun because they test our short-term survival skills and instincts, but I don't think there's a legitimate endgame in sight.

Have you watched the American "version" of the British show, torchwood? They touch upon some of the ideas you've mentioned.